17/07/2009, 16:15 — 17:15 — Room P3.10, Mathematics Building
Rajagopal Nagarajan, Warwick University, UK
Modelling and Analysis of Quantum Protocols
The novel field of quantum computing and quantum information has
gathered significant impetus in the last few years, and it has the
potential to radically impact the future of information technology.
While the successful construction of a large-scale quantum computer
may be some years away, secure communication involving quantum
cryptography has already been implemented, and equipment for
quantum cryptography is commercially available. The major selling
point of quantum cryptography is unconditional security. But can
this be guaranteed in practice? Even when protocols have been
mathematically proved to be secure, it is notoriously difficult to
achieve robust and reliable implementations of secure systems.
Techniques based on formal verification are now widely used by
industry to ensure that (classical) systems meet their
specifications. In this talk, I will give an overview of our
ongoing work in using such techniques for the modelling and
analysis of quantum protocols and, eventually, their
implementations. Joint work with Simon Gay and Nick Papanikolaou.
